


(i'll marry you with) paper rings

by Poe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Endgame Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending, In this household canon is a suggestion and a bad one at that, It's my birthday I wanted to write something soft, Jewish Bucky Barnes, M/M, Natasha Romanov Lives, Peggy Carter's Life Isn't Erased, Pietro is also alive because I say so but it's not important to the story, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-World War II Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve comes back, That Damn Compass, The author is Bitter about Endgame and maybe this is clear in the text of this story, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Vormir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22231672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poe/pseuds/Poe
Summary: There is a moment.(A series of moments, from 1938 to 2023, as Steve goes back in time, and then comes home again.)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 26
Kudos: 118





	(i'll marry you with) paper rings

**1938**

There is a moment, as the afternoon shifts to evening on one lazy Sunday, and Steve leans against the kitchen worktop, watching Bucky read yesterday’s paper, donated by old Mister Cathers from across the hall, (because, Bucky reasons, the news is still the news, even if it’s a day late), and as the dust motes catch the sun as the last few beats of it cut slants across the room, there is a moment, with dancehall music crackling from the radio and Steve’s belly full from good food, the summer had been kind to them both, Steve had painted more signs than he’d had time for, and Bucky had found work as an accountant, and for one summer at least, their stomachs had never rumbled, and this moment, Steve will think later, is picture perfect preserved in a snow globe, simmering with golden potential, and in a moment, the tension will snap and Steve will cross the room and straddle Bucky’s lap and let Bucky kiss him like he owns him, mouthing the words _I do, I do, I do,_ into Steve’s skin, into the crook of his neck, into the crease of his elbow, into the dip of his back, into the soft of his thigh. And later still, Bucky will cut strips from the newspaper and tape them into rings, sliding one over the knobbled knuckle of Steve’s left ring finger, before offering his own hand for Steve to do the same. And Steve will, and the snow globe holds, as they marry each other with paper rings as though it’s the first time they’ve done so, before they lose themselves to each other again, and to whispered promises and the giddying prospect of forevers.

⍟

**2023**

Steve hugs Bucky fiercely, because he just got him back (again) and now he has to leave (again) and Bucky looks beautiful, Bucky has always looked beautiful, but now Steve is allowed to be seen to be looking, and so he does, and he steps back to take him in, before running a hand through Bucky’s hair, and Bucky lights up, sunshine bright, and Steve thinks of paper ring promises and when he says he’ll be back, he means it, and as he steps onto the platform, he looks over at Sam, and at Bucky, and thinks, _well, isn’t there someone missing from this picture?_ and then he’s blinked backwards, a lifetime in a single second and isn’t that something he should be used to by now?

⍟

**1970**

Steve lets himself linger over the photographs on Peggy’s desk, framed and spotless, not a speck of dust to be found – her and her husband, a handsome man Steve would have loved to have met; Peggy and a daughter, cradled delicate as anything in her arms, the same brunette hair and no doubt the same sharp wit as Peggy; and the Howling Commandos, softened by the decades, but still brothers in all the ways that mattered. Steve finds the hidden compartment in Peggy’s desk (there’s always a hidden compartment) and places the compass inside. It’s a small ripple in the timeline, but it’s the type of ripple that fades to nothing, it’s a dead end, nothing can be changed because of it.

The thing is, you can travel in one direction, one foot in front of the other for the rest of your life, but eventually you’ll be right back where you started. So maybe Peggy was his North, but Bucky, Sam, Natasha, Wanda, Pietro, T’Challa, Thor, Morgan - they’re all points on the compass too, and now his life spins with them, stopping only to notice the lack. And so, he moves onwards, because there is still more to do (always more to do).

⍟

**2014**

It makes sense that the man he has to sell half his soul to would turn out to be him, but as he stands on Vormir, at the precipice, ready to jump, he supposes it makes a type of sense only his life could. And so he jumps, and his body breaks, and when he wakes, he drags himself and her from the pool, and as she coughs up water in rib cracking heaves, her red hair plastered to her forehead, he feels the catch in his chest that he hasn’t felt in over a decade, that lack of air, and she looks at him, and without saying a word, asks _why?_ as though it wasn’t obvious.

He had red in his ledger.

She of all people should understand that.

And so as they lean on each other, bodies heavy with the weight of having lost and won and not being sure how to cope with that, he dials in the future, and she looks at him, and she smiles, just a little, and he’s so fucking glad to see her again.

⍟

**2023**

He staggers, and she staggers, and Sam runs to catch her, and he would know Bucky’s arms around him anywhere, so he lets himself be held, lets Bucky nuzzle into his damp hair, lets Bucky whisper in Hebrew, prayers of thanks, and Steve thinks, _now, now we rest_.

“I thought you were bigger,” Bucky says, as he gets his hands on Steve’s face, cradling him, keeping him upright, and Steve looks up at him, at the sea grey eyes, and smiles.

⍟

**2023 (but later, when they’re alone, finally, alone)**

“They have medicine now,” Bucky says, running a hand down Steve’s side, tracing every rib, tracing the curve of Steve’s spine and the way it doesn’t sit quite right. “It won’t be like before.”

And Steve lets him fuss, lets him make plans, lets him think about the future. He’s older now, older than he ever thought he could be – they both are, and he’s seen so much, and Bucky too, and all he wants is the quiet of that snow globe moment, way back before they knew war and blood and guns and shields.

He leans up and captures Bucky’s lips, and Bucky claims him the way he always did, and Steve lets himself be claimed, because he is allowed, he is allowed this, all of this, and maybe tomorrow, or maybe in a week, or maybe in a month, he will ask Sam to take him ring shopping, but right now, he kisses Bucky and it feels the same, like maybe time has folded in on itself and made a pocket just for them.

For so long, he’s fought, because it’s the thing he knew how to do, but goddammit if Steve Rogers doesn’t know how to love too. And maybe history forgot that, but as Bucky moves his hands over Steve’s hips and shimmies off his sweatpants, a smirk on his face that is nearly a hundred years old and just as devilish as it always was, Steve thinks, _maybe it’s time to stop fighting_.

And later still, when the world is quiet around them, and Bucky snores gently, wrapped around him the way they always used to fit, Steve thinks, _maybe there are different ways to fight_ , and maybe there are, with words, and deeds, and finding the right place to be at the right time.

Because history, you see, it’s built brick by brick, on a scale so large you can’t see it when you’re standing still.

Rest, then, for now, and Steve lets his eyes slip closed.

And then maybe tomorrow he’ll start to build.

He has time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, it is my birthday today and I am Old As Balls™ but that is okay because Bucky is over 100 and looking good on it, so. 
> 
> I WAS trying to sleep when this started writing itself in my head, and I am very, very tired, so it might make literally no sense, and I have seen Endgame precisely once the day it came out, so I know at some point Steve also fights himself in 2012 but we're not dealing with any Hydra nonsense in this fic, I won't make him say it, so we're just... ignoring that bit and letting him be happy, okay?
> 
> The fic title comes from the Taylor Swift song 'Paper Rings' which is cute af and the snow globe imagery comes from her 'Lover' video, what can I say, that album really got to my heart and squeezed it tight. 
> 
> My tumblr is jbbarnes.tumblr.com, though I'm not entirely sure anyone actually uses tumblr anymore, so you can also find me on Twitter at @smallreprieves, if you fancy. I'm a loser on both platforms, it's cool, it's cool. 
> 
> I hope you liked this, and as the old saying goes, comments and kudos are very nifty, so feel free to leave both, as they are very nice to receive. 
> 
> I AM GOING TO GO SLEEP NOW THIS IS OUT OF MY HEAD GOODNIGHT.


End file.
